So I had a sarcastic status message up talking about how I was rich now that I got Uncle Dubbaya's $1200 check, and my sister (who I realize really meant nothing by this and was just making a joke) said something about the government printing money and "voila! - free money"
I decided to do some poking around, because I've always figured that the "printing money" meme was a bit simplistic.
And yes, I realize I'm not an economist, so I could be wrong. If I am, I'd love it if someone could enlighten me.
Anyway, so first of all, looking at http://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/h6/current/ (search for Table 5, and look at column 1), it's fairly clear that not too much net money has been 'printed' in the last year and a half. The current amount of currency in circulation is $761b, and in dec. 2006, it was $754b. That's a currency inflation rate of a whopping 0.9% over one and a half years. (And, they only got $7 billion out of it)
In fact, even the year this decade that they printed the most money - 2002 (I think) was a 12% increase in the money supply - but that was only about $60b. Compared to an annual budget on the order of 1 trillion dollars, $60b is not much at all. In fact, if money supply inflation was the only component of price inflation, the federal government would be losing money no matter how much it printed, because the money it got from taxes would be proportionally lower.
So, truth is, the government doesn't print money to "get more money". It prints money for much much more complex economic control issues that have to do with trying to smooth out economic booms and busts. And, if you're a conspiracy enthusiast, to enslave the free market. | 
